Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Our Mutual Friend - by Charles Dickens

US/UK Kindle Classic

Happy 200th Birthday, Charles Dickens! What better way to celebrate than download a free copy of Our Mutual Friend. (US Edition) (UK Edition) This is Dickens last completed novel and it was published in 1865. It is not one of his most popular, but it has an enthusiastic following among those who have read it. It is somehow closer to the sensibilities of our time, because it has a dark humor.

He was shy, and unwilling to own to the name of Reginald, as being too aspiring and self-assertive a name. In his signature he used only the initial R., and imparted what it really stood for, to none but chosen friends, under the seal of confidence. Out of this, the facetious habit had arisen in the neighbourhood surrounding Mincing Lane of making christian names for him of adjectives and participles beginning with R. Some of these were more or less appropriate: as Rusty, Retiring, Ruddy, Round, Ripe, Ridiculous, Ruminative; others, derived their point from their want of application: as Raging, Rattling, Roaring, Raffish. But, his popular name was Rumty, which in a moment of inspiration had been bestowed upon him by a gentleman of convivial habits connected with the drug-markets, as the beginning of a social chorus, his leading part in the execution of which had led this gentleman to the Temple of Fame, and of which the whole expressive burden ran:

Thus he was constantly addressed, even in minor notes on business, as 'Dear Rumty'; in answer to which, he sedately signed himself, 'Yours truly, R. Wilfer.'

Dickens gave us so many memorable novels and characters that it is a pleasure to be able to continue to discover them. Here’s to Rumty and to Our Mutual Friend!

This blog is a guide to the best free and inexpensive
classic literature for the US & UK Kindle. If you enjoy my suggestions,
please tell your friends who read to give my blog a try.

For a nominal fee of 99 cents/pence, you can subscribe
to this blog and have it automatically download on your Kindle. This
gives you the convenience of being able to download the books directly to your
Kindle, instead of downloading them to your computer and then transferring them
to your Kindle. It also helps support my blog.

UK
readers, go to this
Amazon link to subscribe. (Slightly more than half my readers are
from the UK)

Thank
to all my readers, whether you subscribe on your Kindle or whether you read it
online. I love to get good reviews! Who wouldn't? Should you
care to leave a review, follow these links for UK
readers or US
readers.

About Me

I am a Hoosier who spent many years in Chicago and am now in San Antonio. My passion is reuniting lost dogs with their families. I am the Director of the Facebook page, Lost Dogs of Texas and a co-founder of "Lost Dog Awareness Day."

I am not new to reuniting families. After Katrina, I helped people in evacuee shelters in San Antonio to track their missing family members. After that work ended, I started a volunteer group that reunited over 1500 Katrina animals with their families by deciphering information online and tracing evacuees.

I am writing a book about two stolen Yorkies who were found after an amazing eighteeen month search. It is tentatively titled "Finding Baxter and Cooper: A Woman, a Private Investigator and their Successful Search for Two Stolen Dogs."